Rose of Rapture – one of the finest and most underrated historical romances set in the War of the Roses era
I have a confession to make.
I’m an author.
I make things up.
I even make stuff up about real things that actually happened.
The writer’s craft is to blend fact and fiction so skillfully that the casual reader will not know where one ends and the other starts.
A book can even play with the facts of history as long as a strong enough case has been built in its pages. A case in point is Rebecca Brandewyne’s Rose of Rapture, the starting point of my historical romance journey back in the late 1980s which revealed to me what was possible in historical romance.
Brandewyne presents Richard as a man who accepts the throne of England reluctantly and whose inherent decency made him the unwitting victim of ambitious schemes to put another on the throne.
Unlike Shakespeare’s depiction of Richard III:
“And therefore, — since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days, —
I am determined to prove a villain,
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.”
Although popularly condemned for the murder of his nephews (rival claimants to the throne), Richard in Rose of Rapture is not the villain but rather the blame is laid at the feet of someone else whose ambition actually went on to foster the great Tudor dynasty.
Fact or fiction? Who’s to say? The passage of time has obscured the truth and the facts remain for academics to discuss. For the rest of us, a well outlined argument is all we need to suspend our disbelief for the duration of the story.
I’m currently reading Philippa Gregory’s Other Boleyn Girl, a fascinating page turner set in the court of Henry VIII as told through the eyes on Anne Boleyn’s sister Mary, reputed to have been one of Henry ‘s lovers and mother of two illegitimate children Henry and Catherine.
Who cares whether Mary reconciled with her cuckolded husband as sweetly as portrayed in the book? Who cares whether a tennis match played by Henry resulted in a sprained ankle. It doesn’t matter to history, but it does matter to the character whose story is being told here.
Gregory’s ability to tell a story is undisputed and the way she spins the political machinations around Henry’s need for an heir at any cost is done so in an utterly plausible way.
Except…
Two things jarred with me and caused me to look up the history of Mary, Anne and their brother George for myself.
Philippa Gregory’s popular and entertaining The Other Boleyn Girl.
The first was that Anne is listed as the older sister, even thought it was Mary who was married first. That didn’t sit right. Convention dictates that the eldest girl is married first. Indeed historians believe that Anne was younger than Mary by as little as a year.
Does it matter? Not if the tale of the youngest sister manipulated by the sibling and her parents is pivotal to the story, but it is not and that break of the suspension of disbelief makes one question other things , such as George Boleyn’s homosexual pining for the unrequited love of the equally smitten fellow courtier.
This jars quite strongly considering the great deal of effort Gregory goes to hint at and later evolve the suggestion that George and Anne were incestuously involved – a conceit which makes sense in the light of the charges faced by Anne and George in 1536 and for which they were, in part, executed.
Again whether the accusations of incest were true or not are moot. The accusations themselves are a matter of fact and it is the author’s prerogative how she wishes to proceed, but that makes the introduction of George’s homosexual subplot all the more heavy handed.
But does this ruin an otherwise great read?
Perhaps not, but it does take the gloss off.
To quote Shakespeare again: “All that glisters is not gold; Often have you heard that told…”
What do you look for in historical romance? Is historical accuracy important or does a ‘good yarn’ triumph any inaccuracies or anachronisms? Let me know in comments below.
** Confession time**
During an early draft of Moonstone Obsession a beta reader challenge me on whether my characters would have danced a waltz in 1790. I will confess to a slight historical anachronism. I have seen references to 1812 but I have also seen a couple of reference to the waltz introduced to England in 1790, so I will claim that date.
update – 3 November, 2013
Last week I finished the end of The Other Boleyn Girl and Philippa Gregory did make George part of a broader cabal, all loyal to Anne, all of whom were executed by Henry, so in that case a historic fact that is in broad dispute works within the context of this fiction. And yet, I’m still left shaking my head at her choice of make Mary younger than Anne. To be honest, I think there could be even more dramatic tension between the two sisters with Anne as the assertive, domineering younger sister. But that’s just me.